Asm. Jim Frazier

Existing law establishes various state water policies, including the policy that source watersheds are recognized and defined as integral components of California's water infrastructure. This bill would declare it to be state policy that the existing state of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is recognized and defined as an integral component of California's water infrastructure. The bill would state that the maintenance and repair of the Delta are eligible for the same forms of financing as other water collection and treatment infrastructure and would specify the maintenance and repair activities that are eligible are limited to certain cleanup and abatement-related restoration and conservation activities.

Under existing law, it is an infraction for a person to drive a motor vehicle while using a wireless telephone unless that telephone is specifically designed and configured to allow hands-free listening and talking, and is used in that manner while driving, except in emergencies, as provided. Existing law makes it an infraction to drive a motor vehicle while holding and operating a handheld wireless telephone or an electronic wireless communications device unless the wireless telephone or electronic wireless communications device is specifically designed and configured to allow voice-operated and hands-free operation, and it is used in that manner while driving, except as provided. Existing law makes it an infraction for a person 18 years of age or younger to drive a motor vehicle while using a wireless telephone or an electronic wireless communications device, even if equipped with a hands-free device, except in emergencies, as provided. This bill would require a mobile telephone carrier, as defined, to provide customers with the ability to disable, at the network level, the distracting capabilities of their mobile telephones when notified that the customer is driving a motor vehicle.

Existing law establishes within state government eight agencies. Existing law requires each agency to be under the supervision of an executive officer known as the secretary. Existing law requires the secretary of each agency to review the operations and evaluate the performance at appropriate intervals of each department, office, or other unit of that agency, and to seek continually to improve the organization structure, operating policies, and management information systems of each department, office, or other unit. This bill would require the secretary of each agency, by January 1, 2019, and every year thereafter, to review all programs that were created or expanded either by statute or regulation in the previous year that a department, office, or unit of that agency is responsible for administering. The bill would require the secretary to establish metrics to determine the success of that program, and to continuously evaluate the performance of that program. The bill would require the secretary to publish on his or her Internet Web site, and the Internet Web site of the relevant department, office, or unit responsible for administering the program, an accountability report that includes specified information.

Under existing law, the California Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1973, the Division of Occupational Safety and Health investigates complaints that a workplace is not safe and may issue orders necessary to ensure employee safety. Under existing law, certain violations of that act or a standard, order, or special order authorized by the act are a crime. This bill would prohibit the division from commencing any enforcement action for any nonserious violation, as defined, against any employer where the employer is a small business or microbusiness, as defined, without first giving the employer written notice and providing the employer 30 days to correct the violation. The bill would authorize the division to assess a reasonable fee to cover its costs not to exceed $50.

The Williamson Act, also known as the California Land Conservation Act of 1965, authorizes a city or county to enter into contracts with owners of land devoted to agricultural use, whereby the owners agree to continue using the property for that purpose, and the city or county agrees to value the land accordingly for purposes of property taxation. Existing law authorizes a landowner or group of landowners to petition the board of supervisors to rescind a contract or contracts in order to simultaneously place the land subject to that contract or those contracts under a new contract designating the property as a farmland security zone, as specified. Under existing law, land under a farmland security contract is valued at 65% of the value of the land, as specified. This bill would additionally authorize a landowner or group of landowners to petition the board of supervisors to rescind a contract or contracts in order to simultaneously place the land subject to that contract or those contracts under a new contract designating the property as a farmland security and conservation zone for a period of at least 30, 40, or 50 years, as specified. This bill would require land subject to a farmland security and conservation zone contract to be valued between 61% and 65% of the value of the land based on the length of the contract, as specified.

Existing law, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Reform Act of 2009, prohibits construction of a new Delta conveyance facility from being initiated until the persons or entities that contract to receive water from the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project or a joint powers authority representing those entities have made arrangements or entered into contracts to pay for certain costs required for the construction, operation, and maintenance of the facility and full mitigation of property tax or assessments levied for land used in the construction, location, mitigation, or operation of the facility. This bill would require, before a water contractor enters into a contract to pay for these costs, that the lead agency provide the breakdown of costs for each water contractor entering into a contract and what benefits each contractor will receive based on the proportion it has financed of the proposed conveyance project.

Existing property tax law requires the county auditor, in each fiscal year, to allocate property tax revenue to local jurisdictions in accordance with specified formulas and procedures, and generally requires that each jurisdiction be allocated an amount equal to the total of the amount of revenue allocated to that jurisdiction in the prior fiscal year, subject to certain modifications, and that jurisdiction's portion of the annual tax increment, as defined. Existing property tax law also reduces the amounts of ad valorem property tax revenue that would otherwise be annually allocated to the county, cities, and special districts pursuant to these general allocation requirements by requiring, for purposes of determining property tax revenue allocations in each county for the 1992–93 and 1993–94 fiscal years, that the amounts of property tax revenue deemed allocated in the prior fiscal year to the county, cities, and special districts be reduced in accordance with certain formulas. It requires that the revenues not allocated to the county, cities, and special districts as a result of these reductions be transferred to the Educational Revenue Augmentation Fund in that county for allocation to school districts, community college districts, and the county office of education. Existing property tax law prohibits these reductions and transfers from being made with respect to certain special districts, including multicounty special districts, as provided. This bill, for the 2018–19 fiscal year and for each fiscal year thereafter, would require the auditor of the County of Contra Costa to allocate those ad valorem property tax revenues that would otherwise be allocated to the county's Educational Revenue Augmentation Fund from the East Bay Regional Park District, if the East Bay Regional Park District was not a multicounty special district, to the East Contra Costa Fire Protection District. The bill would limit the amount allocated to the East Contra Costa Fire Protection District pursuant to these provisions to $10,500,000 per fiscal year. By imposing new duties upon local government officials in the allocation of ad valorem property tax revenues, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the County of Contra Costa. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above. By reallocating ad valorem property tax revenue from the East Contra Costa Fire Protection District to the East Bay Regional Park District, this bill would change the pro rata shares in which ad valorem property tax revenues are allocated among local agencies in a county within the meaning of paragraph (3) of subdivision (a) of Section 25.5 of Article XIII of the California Constitution, and thus would require for passage the approval of 23 of the membership of each house of the Legislature.

Existing law requires all rigid plastic bottles and rigid plastic containers sold in the state to be labeled with a code that indicates the resin used to produce the rigid plastic bottle or rigid plastic container. The California Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989, administered by the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, requires every rigid plastic packaging container, as defined, sold or offered for sale in this state to generally meet one of specified criteria. Existing law requires a manufacturer or supplier making an environmental marketing claim relating to the recycled content of a plastic food container product, as defined, to maintain certain information and documentation in support of that claim. Existing law requires a manufacturer or supplier to furnish this information to any member of the public upon request or to provide the information and documentation by furnishing a link to a document on its Internet Web site. Existing law repeals these requirements relating to information supporting claims of recycled content for plastic food container products on January 1, 2018. This bill would extend the operation of those requirements to January 1, 2028.

Existing property tax law requires the county auditor, in each fiscal year, to allocate property tax revenues to local jurisdictions in accordance with specified formulas and procedures, and generally requires that each jurisdiction be allocated an amount equal to the total of the amount of revenue allocated to that jurisdiction in the prior fiscal year, subject to certain modifications, and that jurisdiction's portion of the annual tax increment, as defined. This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation that would provide for an election in the County of Contra Costa for the purpose of reallocating property tax revenues for fire protection services in that county.